Timeline
How we went about implementing the AVID Saturday Intervention at Santiago High School:
This
journey began in December 2013 at the AVID Site Team Conference in La Quinta,
California. In our quest to become an AVID National Demonstration Site, we
discussed barriers to accomplishing this goal. One of the goals outlined by the
AVID certification is that 75% or more AVID students should pass all core
content classes with a C or better. We are meeting this goal with our 9th
and 12th grade students, but were falling short of this goal in
grades 10 and 11. We spent the majority of our time at this conference
discussing our current interventions, and barriers that we were facing. We
realized a few things.
1. That there were very few interventions left on campus in recent years. Tutoring opportunities were limited, meaning that students were unable to receive additional support outside of the traditional school day. Students had to rely on teachers offering help before or after school with no compensation.
2. AVID students would get grade checks, and even though they knew they were failing classes, they would wait until the end of the grading term to receive help. By this time, it is too late for many students.
3. We needed to get creative with an intervention that supported our students, but did not ask teachers to give up time.
The idea of using the Saturday School model for AVID was then brought up. Saturday School is funded using ADA. Students can attend a four hour Saturday School and an absence can be reinstated through ADA. The funds recouped through ADA can be used to pay a teacher to work those four hours. Our principal contacted the district, and we identified the parameters for paying teachers though ADA. You need to have 18 students with full day absences to pay for one teacher to work Saturday School receiving their hourly rate. You can have students attend without an absence, but their numbers will not count toward the ADA recoupment. For example, if you have 100 students, but only 18 of them have an absence, you can only pay one teacher to work. Once an absence is used, it is turned into a PRESENT mark of attendance, and cannot be used again.
At this point, I created a Saturday School Intervention form. (on Artifacts page) It was sent to the principal for approval. Once it was approved, we were on our way to making it happen. We ran a semester D and F report and a student pulse report to identify students with D’s and F’s currently in their classes. Each student with a D or F received a form identifying them for Saturday Intervention. (on Artifacts page). Students that received the form had to attend Saturday Interventions until their grades were a C or better in all core classes or they could receive an exemption from a teacher (if their grade was not reflected correctly on the grading site). We turned in the names of identified students to the attendance office so they could identify student absences for ADA. Based on how many available absences were identified, we were able to ask teachers to work. It was important to wait until we had an estimate of absences to see how many teachers could get paid.
The first Saturday Intervention on February 22, 2014, over 300 students were identified to attend, over 100 students were exempted by teachers, and 157 students attended. Based on absences, we were able to ask eight teachers to work.
The day of, we organized students into rooms: math, science, history. English, computer lab, and multiple subject work room. In each room was a content teacher from that subject area. Students were to report to rooms based on the courses they were failing. There was a break at 10 am (halfway though) for students to switch rooms if they needed help in a second content area. We attempted to eliminate having students wander the halls. In subjects such as math and science, we had multiple teachers available to help. One teacher walked around to facilitate and ensure students were on task. Each student signed in and out. We had to get approval to use teacher rooms. We kept the entire intervention in one building.
The following Monday, teachers submitted timecards for hours worked, and we also turned in the sign in sheets to the attendance office to recoup ADA. Students that did not attend were talked to by their AVID teacher. At this point, we did not have a consequence for students that did not attend. Most teachers called parents or came up with an alternative intervention opportunity such as staying in for lunch tutoring for a week.
We continued the process through the remainder of the semester. Every Saturday, there were fewer students identified. Students were becoming increasingly proactive about getting their grades up. They were taking to their teachers more (mostly to convince them to exempt them or to find out how they could get their grades up). Regardless, it was successful. It was not perfect though. A few issues we found while doing this were: 1. Students did not always come prepared to work for four hours. 2. Some students needed to be there, but found excuses to not attend. 3. Without a systematic consequence for not attending, consistency was an issue. 4. An 18 to 1 ratio for a targeted intervention is not ideal. 5. It was a LOT of work for not only the teacher that facilitated and did all of the ADA work, but also for the attendance office (they were highly displeased to do this extra work).
All of these issues were worth it, when we met our goal after running Semester 2 grades, the D and F rate dropped significantly and we met the 75% pass rate requirement. The AVID Saturday Intervention was a program we wanted to keep!
In the Fall, we found implementation was not going to be as simple due to the fact that we would not have ADA to recoup so early in the year. As a program, we had to get creative with funding this program. We went to our administration team and discovered that the Extra Duty Fund could be the answer. If we could validate through data that this program would directly impact student achievement, we could pay teachers through the Extra Duty Funding. We had to write a proposal and have it approved (on Artifacts page). We initially asked for 12 Saturday Interventions with 5 teachers each, but were limited to 3 semester one. Teachers were paid curriculum rate and not hourly for their time. We planned the 3 dates, and asked 5 teachers to work. We did not have to work with ADA, so students in attendance had to sign in and out for our records only. Another component to this was that we had to open up the Saturday Intervention to all Santiago students, not specifically AVID. Although we were happy to open it up, it meant more students and a limited amount of staff (only 5 that were approved). We have AVID college tutors, so we asked a few of them to work Saturday to help out. We also sent AVID students to receive tutor training through RCOE and plan to utilize student volunteer tutors as well.
Once we had more student absences to pull from Semester 2, we will resume our initial ADA funding model we started with.
1. That there were very few interventions left on campus in recent years. Tutoring opportunities were limited, meaning that students were unable to receive additional support outside of the traditional school day. Students had to rely on teachers offering help before or after school with no compensation.
2. AVID students would get grade checks, and even though they knew they were failing classes, they would wait until the end of the grading term to receive help. By this time, it is too late for many students.
3. We needed to get creative with an intervention that supported our students, but did not ask teachers to give up time.
The idea of using the Saturday School model for AVID was then brought up. Saturday School is funded using ADA. Students can attend a four hour Saturday School and an absence can be reinstated through ADA. The funds recouped through ADA can be used to pay a teacher to work those four hours. Our principal contacted the district, and we identified the parameters for paying teachers though ADA. You need to have 18 students with full day absences to pay for one teacher to work Saturday School receiving their hourly rate. You can have students attend without an absence, but their numbers will not count toward the ADA recoupment. For example, if you have 100 students, but only 18 of them have an absence, you can only pay one teacher to work. Once an absence is used, it is turned into a PRESENT mark of attendance, and cannot be used again.
At this point, I created a Saturday School Intervention form. (on Artifacts page) It was sent to the principal for approval. Once it was approved, we were on our way to making it happen. We ran a semester D and F report and a student pulse report to identify students with D’s and F’s currently in their classes. Each student with a D or F received a form identifying them for Saturday Intervention. (on Artifacts page). Students that received the form had to attend Saturday Interventions until their grades were a C or better in all core classes or they could receive an exemption from a teacher (if their grade was not reflected correctly on the grading site). We turned in the names of identified students to the attendance office so they could identify student absences for ADA. Based on how many available absences were identified, we were able to ask teachers to work. It was important to wait until we had an estimate of absences to see how many teachers could get paid.
The first Saturday Intervention on February 22, 2014, over 300 students were identified to attend, over 100 students were exempted by teachers, and 157 students attended. Based on absences, we were able to ask eight teachers to work.
The day of, we organized students into rooms: math, science, history. English, computer lab, and multiple subject work room. In each room was a content teacher from that subject area. Students were to report to rooms based on the courses they were failing. There was a break at 10 am (halfway though) for students to switch rooms if they needed help in a second content area. We attempted to eliminate having students wander the halls. In subjects such as math and science, we had multiple teachers available to help. One teacher walked around to facilitate and ensure students were on task. Each student signed in and out. We had to get approval to use teacher rooms. We kept the entire intervention in one building.
The following Monday, teachers submitted timecards for hours worked, and we also turned in the sign in sheets to the attendance office to recoup ADA. Students that did not attend were talked to by their AVID teacher. At this point, we did not have a consequence for students that did not attend. Most teachers called parents or came up with an alternative intervention opportunity such as staying in for lunch tutoring for a week.
We continued the process through the remainder of the semester. Every Saturday, there were fewer students identified. Students were becoming increasingly proactive about getting their grades up. They were taking to their teachers more (mostly to convince them to exempt them or to find out how they could get their grades up). Regardless, it was successful. It was not perfect though. A few issues we found while doing this were: 1. Students did not always come prepared to work for four hours. 2. Some students needed to be there, but found excuses to not attend. 3. Without a systematic consequence for not attending, consistency was an issue. 4. An 18 to 1 ratio for a targeted intervention is not ideal. 5. It was a LOT of work for not only the teacher that facilitated and did all of the ADA work, but also for the attendance office (they were highly displeased to do this extra work).
All of these issues were worth it, when we met our goal after running Semester 2 grades, the D and F rate dropped significantly and we met the 75% pass rate requirement. The AVID Saturday Intervention was a program we wanted to keep!
In the Fall, we found implementation was not going to be as simple due to the fact that we would not have ADA to recoup so early in the year. As a program, we had to get creative with funding this program. We went to our administration team and discovered that the Extra Duty Fund could be the answer. If we could validate through data that this program would directly impact student achievement, we could pay teachers through the Extra Duty Funding. We had to write a proposal and have it approved (on Artifacts page). We initially asked for 12 Saturday Interventions with 5 teachers each, but were limited to 3 semester one. Teachers were paid curriculum rate and not hourly for their time. We planned the 3 dates, and asked 5 teachers to work. We did not have to work with ADA, so students in attendance had to sign in and out for our records only. Another component to this was that we had to open up the Saturday Intervention to all Santiago students, not specifically AVID. Although we were happy to open it up, it meant more students and a limited amount of staff (only 5 that were approved). We have AVID college tutors, so we asked a few of them to work Saturday to help out. We also sent AVID students to receive tutor training through RCOE and plan to utilize student volunteer tutors as well.
Once we had more student absences to pull from Semester 2, we will resume our initial ADA funding model we started with.